A wave of public outrage is swelling across Adamawa State as social media influencer and citizen journalist, JiKa Adamu, takes aim at Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s controversial ₦15 billion education project, accusing the administration of abandoning the children of the poor while chasing after model school fantasies.
In a fiery Facebook post that has since ignited widespread debate, JiKa called out the stark contradiction in the state’s educational priorities. While Fintiri’s government trumpets its vision to build model schools in all 21 local government areas, reportedly inspired by similar projects in Borno State, dozens of already existing public schools are literally falling apart, leaving thousands of underprivileged students in shocking conditions.
“Fintiri is not entirely a failure,” JiKa clarified. “He has done commendable work, particularly in the state capital where infrastructure has seen a facelift. But in the pursuit of grandeur, he has abandoned the urgent and basic needs of our most vulnerable communities. You don’t build tomorrow by ignoring today.”
Among the most heart-wrenching cases is Damilu Secondary School, located near Yola airport in Jimeta. JiKa revealed that students are forced to sit on bare floors in roofless, crumbling classrooms, fully exposed to the elements. With no furniture, no windows, and no protective roofing, the children endure lessons amid rainfall, scorching heat, and health hazards.
“This isn’t just neglect,” JiKa fumed. “It is systemic exclusion. These children deserve dignity. Their right to education is being eroded in real time.”
Elsewhere in Mayo-Belwa Local Government, Government Girls College has reportedly descended into a state of decay so severe that wild reptiles now roam freely through open classrooms. The buildings lack doors, windows, and basic safety—turning the pursuit of knowledge into a daily gamble for survival.
The situation in Ganye Local Government is equally distressing. Once home to the reputable Women Teachers’ College, the now-merged Government Secondary School Sugu faces suffocating overcrowding and dangerously dilapidated facilities. JiKa described hostels crammed beyond capacity, classrooms with crumbling walls, and a general state of disrepair that reflects zero investment in years.
The common thread running through all these cases is a painful irony: a government borrowing billions to build new structures while the lifeblood of its public education, its existing schools and students are left to rot.
Critics argue that the Fintiri administration’s priorities reflect a hunger for political legacy over practical impact. “You don’t fix education by pouring concrete over broken promises,” one teacher commented anonymously. “You fix it by making sure no child learns under a leaking roof or fears a snake crawling into class.”
As Adamawa heads into a critical political season, with the Ganye Constituency by-election looming, the question on many lips is clear: Can a government that overlooks the present truly claim to invest in the future?
For the thousands of children learning in squalor, that answer may already be written on their classroom walls—cracked, faded, and forgotten.
PIONEER NEWS 